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Is EdTech the Future of Parental Engagement?

As educators, we talk a lot about the role that teachers play in the lives of students and debate the best ways to strengthen the classroom experience for students from all backgrounds. There is only so much a teacher can do, though, particularly with large class sizes and limited resources. Even teachers in the best of circumstances are limited when it comes to hours in the day and the amount of material that must be covered. As K-12 academic standards become more rigorous, parents are becoming an even more integral piece of a student’s success. Asking parents to pick up …

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OPINION: Why creating and maintaining accessible digital resources is neither easy nor optional

by Nancy Kopans   When a leading research university announces the removal of more than 20,000 course videos and podcasts from the public, in response to a U.S. Department of Justice ruling, such a move should not go unnoticed. The DOJ launched its investigation of the University of California, Berkeley in response to complaints from the National Association of the Deaf asserting that Berkeley’s online videos did not contain closed captioning. Under Titles II and III of the Americans with Disability Act ,public and private universities must ensure that any content made available is accessible, unless meeting accessibility guidelines would result in a …

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How I Teach: A science teacher’s Method for pushing past ‘I don’t get it’

Originally posted on Chalkbeat by Christina Veiga Casey DePasquale’s foray into teaching was supposed to be temporary. She joined Teach for America a decade ago with the hopes of learning about medical issues in underprivileged communities, and eventually applying that knowledge as a doctor. Instead, she got hooked on teaching and never left New York City classrooms. DePasquale teaches high school science, including an Advanced Placement course, at Urban Assembly School for Emergency Management in Lower Manhattan. She is working on her second graduate degree: she already has a master’s in secondary education and is a candidate for another in …

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Why is a STEM education important? Because it’s going to help me build a better water system for Ethiopia.

Originally posted on Chalkbeat by Yonas Bayu I find it unfair that people in the world live without their basic needs met. It is especially frustrating because my family in Ethiopia lives without one of these basic needs: access to clean water. In Ethiopia, most people receive their water from unsanitary ponds shared by animals. As in many developing countries, the current water infrastructures in place create hygiene and sanitation health concerns. Hygiene, probably the most essential factor in human health, has been an area of little emphasis by international aid organizations. My family has told me stories about traveling …

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We asked five Colorado teachers how they use technology in the classroom. This is what they said.

Originally posted on Chalkbeat by Wesley Wright Thousands of educators from across the country converged on Denver’s convention center this week to explore how technology can help — and sometimes hinder — classroom learning. Digital devices and technology are commonplace in classrooms, from math lessons on iPad apps to more out-there experiments like using virtual reality to teach geography. But as such practices have spread, detractors have emerged, too. One former teacher suggested in a Washington Post column that all technology be removed from the classroom. His rationale: Devices keep students from focusing on their work. Chalkbeat caught up with …

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Black and white students score far apart on a new test of technology skills

Originally posted on Chalkbeat by Philissa Cramer The first attempt by the “nation’s report card” to measure students’ ability to think creatively and use technology found wide racial achievement gaps — and evidence that schools aren’t effectively teaching important skills. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, has long been the only way to compare student test scores in math and reading across states. In 2014, amid growing calls for testing to go beyond basic academic skills, the group added a new exam to measure students’ “technology and engineering literacy,” or their ability to solve real-world problems. The test …

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All You Need to Know About Buying Virtual Reality Headsets, Goggles, and Glasses

With virtual reality being one of the biggest trends to hit edtech in years, educators need to know as much about this technology as possible. As a matter of fact, education futurists are predicting that this technology will be instrumental in the future of education, right up there with personalized learning. In a previous article, we provided our readers with a list of the best virtual reality games on the market. As a follow-up, this article will teach them all they need to know about virtual reality headsets, goggles, and glasses. The first thing that you need to know is …

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How can we learn to reject fake news in the digital world?

Thomas P. Mackey, SUNY Empire State College and Trudi Jacobson, University at Albany, State University of New York The circulation of fake news through social media in the 2016 presidential election has raised several concerns about online information. Of course, there is nothing new about fake news as such – the satirical site “The Onion” has long done this. Fake news satire is part of “Saturday Night Live”‘s Weekend Update and “The Daily Show.” In these cases, the framework of humor is clear and explicit. That, however, is not the case in social media, which has emerged as a real …

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